Resume Padding 101

The problem with the world today the academic world today is that everyone emphasizes resumes.

Find an internship, volunteer, join 5-6 clubs… all so your resume can look handy dandy and ready for that Big Boss.

(Wait? What is the Big Boss, you ask? Big Boss = the ultimate goal. Whether it’s the top law school, business school, med school, finance company, bank, or a humble office in Kansas, it’s your life dream, aka the reason you’re doing all this resume padding in the first place.)

Let me recall an anecdote from college last semester. A girl from the class of 2014 started this economics/political science organization. It was to promote global awareness on society through student written articles. It was to gather students and unite them in a common cause.

Long story short, it’s a tiny, crappier version of Times magazine. (Well, not necessarily crappier. 97% of the articles are probably from Times. Edited to 300 words, of course.)

Anyway, at the first few meetings, you could tell right away the girl was not doing this to “promote a economically aware campus.” No, it was more like, I have 2 years left of college and I haven’t done anything. How do I stack against the competition?? Oh wait, I’ll start a club. Not just any club, a club involving ECONOMICS and POLITICAL THEORY. Totally a winner.

To this day, the only thing the girl has done is

email everyone on campus to “contribute an article TODAY!”

add editor-in-chief and founder to her resume

It’d be wrong to bash on just one person. I mean, come on, I’m sure a lot of students these days are guilty of resume padding, too. In high school, if I gained a dollar each time I heard someone say they joined a club because “it looks good to colleges,” I’d be rolling in… well, only a little over $34, but still.

The point is, resume padding is shallow. Look at Bill Gates–I’m sure he didn’t throw himself into random organizations just to pad his resume. Nope, he stuck with his one passion (computers) and now look at him. Or look at that teenage pianist who went on to play at Carnegie Hall. I can bet she didn’t waste her time joining extraneous activities she didn’t even like.

Each of us has a talent. Use it instead of branding ourselves with Times New Roman, size 12 on a sheet of paper.